Want a prime example of a phoned-in special? Look no further than the 1977 Looney Tunes made-for-TV special Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies.
 It features one of the weakest premises ever used to wrap up a set of classic theatrical shorts: The Easter Bunny is ill, and he and Granny audition various candidates to fill in for him. Said candidates apply by showing some cartoons they have starred in. Among the candidates are Pepe LePew (who showcases "For Scenti-Imental Reasons"), Foghorn Leghorn ("Little Boy Boo"), Sylvester and Tweety ("Tweety's Circus", "Birds Anonymous"), Daffy Duck ("Robin Hood Daffy"), and Yosemite Sam ("Sahara Hare"). In case you're wondering why she doesn't just go with Bugs (the obvious choice), it's because he's busy shooting "Knighty Knight Bugs" and "Hillbilly Hare" for Warner Bros., and so is unavailable.
Clocking in at about 50 minutes, Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies at least offers more bang for your buck, time-wise, than Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers. But as you can tell from the description, it has a much weaker plot. At least in the latter the writers wove a new storyline through the old footage, in sort of a pre-cursor to 1988's far-superior Quackbusters. But in Easter Funnies, the format is basically, "Character shows up, rolls film, is rejected." Sure, it's a nice showreel for some of the finer Looney Tunes offerings, but as a new tale, it is little more than a clip show.
Also, the wraparound footage lacks the necessary "bite" that made Looney Tunes such anarchic fun. All the personalities except Daffy's are toned down, and practically every scene that fades to black (i.e. cutting to a commercial) doesn't even end with a punchline! For example, after Sylvester's cartoon, Granny says he's not what she's looking for in an Easter Bunny. He replies with, "Oh that's all right, Granny." Fade out. Yawn. In another instance, Foghorn says, "Why do they even need an Easter Bunny? What's wrong with an Easter Chicken?" As Bugs himself once said sarcastically, "Har har, hardy, har har." Oh, and the less said about the special's dumb ending line, the better.
The bridging animation gets the job done, but it is noticeably wonkier than the old shorts, so it's pretty jarring when you go from beautiful '50s footage to stuff from the late '70s. Some of the character voices are understandably weaker, too. Mel Blanc was getting up in years and so his characters don't have the same oomph they used to. Even so, it seemed a bit odd that the Easter Bunny has pretty much the same voice as Bugs. Blanc was famous as the man of 1,000 voices, so why the rehash? Finally, background music for the bridging sequences is forgettable, unlike the classic shorts.
Overall, outside of the shorts that make it up, this special disappoints.
 Video quality on the DVD fluctuates depending on the scene; at times, it almost matches the Golden Collections in its quality, but at other times it barely looks better than a VHS copy of the special, with artifacting, ghosting, and dot crawl among many problems.
When it comes to special material, it's below par as well. We get a bonus cartoon, 1951's "His Hare-Raising Tale", which is mostly old footage with the wrap-around premise that Bugs is telling his nephew some events from his life. It's a weak cartoon with the only merit being the always reliable Virgil Ross providing most of the graceful wraparound animation, but you'd be better off watching the full shorts that make it up. Additionally, the short is unrestored and rather darkly lit, so it's kind of a waste. There is also an interactive puzzle that is definitely aimed at the young crowd and nobody else, and a Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown / It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown trailer.
Even at $9.99, Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies is a waste of time and money, especially if you already own the Golden Collections, where the vast majority of the footage can also be found. It's okay for the parent who needs fast entertainment for an impatient kid and doesn't own anything Looney Tunes-related. But as for everyone else, unless you absolutely must have every piece of Looney Tunes footage not on DVD yet (which, in this instance, includes the brief wraparounds and most of "Tweety's Circus" and "Little Boy Boo"), this is an easy pass.
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